Amazon will buy MGM as media consolidation hits frenzy

Sadly, they might actually restore some prestige to MGM.

I would also add that the MGM name is still worth a lot. The MGM lion is still a well known trademark. If someone is going to/watching a movie and they see the MGM lion before a film, instead of Amazon, it signifies quality.

MGM no longer has a valuable catalogue. All of the films from their glory years were bought up by Ted Turner.

Just today TCM was part of the package combining Warner Media and Discovery networks. Ted Turner based TCM on the MGM library.

MGM claims to own one of the world’s “deepest libraries” of premium film and TV content.

Its 4,000 film titles include the James Bond, Hobbit, Rocky/Creed, RoboCop and Pink Panther franchises, as well as movies like “The Silence of the Lambs,” “The Magnificent Seven” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” The MGM TV library includes approximately 17,000 episodes of programming, including “Stargate SG-1,” “Stargate Atlantis,” “Stargate Universe,” “Vikings,” “Fargo,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Get Shorty,” “Condor,” “Fame,” “American Gladiators,” “Teen Wolf” and “In the Heat of the Night.” Unscripted shows in its portfolio include “The Voice,” “Survivor,” “Shark Tank,” “”The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “The Hills.”

R3 They no longer have their original catalogue but they have re-built one. For instance, while they no longer have the classic MGM films they own the United Artists releases.

Good luck with that!

R1 Nonsense!

I -- and I *ALONE* -- am the ONLY thing that ever brought prestige to MGM!

Box office poison!!

Is Amazon interested in a costume museum?

R10 🔥 🔥 🔥

Wow they got it cheaper

Yet they still overpaid by40% per NY Times

The e-commerce giant said on Wednesday that it would acquire the 97-year-old film and television studio for $8.45 billion — or about 40 percent more than other prospective buyers, including Apple and Comcast, thought MGM was worth. The studio, which had been shopped around for months, was once home to “more stars than the heavens,” as Louis B. Mayer liked to brag. But its vast production lot and pre-1986 film library were sold off decades ago. (Sony Pictures now occupies the lot, and Warner Bros. owns classic MGM films like “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Gone With the Wind.”)

Given that Amazon will now outright own these titles, and they'll be less reliant on content owned by others for which they would otherwise have to re-negotiate licenses.

Per a recent industry survey, consumers are influenced more by choice of movies and series (50%) than they are by free trials or discounts on subscriptions (24%).

The Broccoli family still holds the rights to Bond, unless they’ve chosen to sell it.

I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. Bezos.

We all might as well have PROPERTY OF AMAZON tattooed on our backsides!

Also in the Times article for r15

But even 007 has an asterisk. Amazon will own only 50 percent of the spy franchise. The balance is held by Barbara Broccoli and her brother, Michael G. Wilson. The siblings also have ironclad creative control, deciding when to make a new Bond film, who should play the title role and whether television spinoffs get made. (They have blocked such efforts in the past.)

R16, so there's this thing called HD.

As Stephen Colbert pointed out last night, you know what MGM owns that Bezos wants?

All the "Apprentice" outtakes.

Don-don dropping every racist epithet in the English language.

*evil laughter*

Thanks r18

Amazon will also get The Apprentice & Celebrity Apprentice which is owned by MGM. How long til Bezos releases the racist Trump outtakes?

MGM hasn't been a major studio in decades. They don't even HAVE a studio anymore, unlike Sony (Columbia), Universal, Paramount, WB, and Disney, And they haven't been major players in scripted television in a long time.

Coming soon to Amazon Prime: the Apprentice Outtakes! In 5.1 surround sound and 4K video!

By buying MGM, they also deny other outlets access to their catalog.

This will drive traffic to their service at the same time denying Netflix and others access.

Granted MGM hasn't had current content for years. That back catalog, however....

Bumping this thread to supersede a duplicate I created a few minutes ago. I searched, but I didn't see this thread until I came across it in the main feed just now. Apologies.

Anyway, I hope this merger will throw a few bucks toward Prime Video. The site needs a desperate overhaul. The app for Sony TVs is pretty shitty.

MGM has been "for sale" for what seems like decades.

Amazon Fire Stick r27.

All your Bonds are belong to us.

Prime Video is a poorly designed app and I doubt this will improve the quality.

Much of MGM’s catalog already rotates on Prime because they make money from licensing titles between the streamers on a rotating basis.

The only incentive this poses for Prime is the ability to adapt MGM Catalog titles for streaming scripted series. That’s literally all Amazon wants from the deal. The lion logo will add a little glamour to the odd theatrical release they put out, but this deal was for potential streaming IP.

Colbert still trying to wring blood from a stone

[quote]That back catalog, however....

All the good stuff in the "back catalog" was sold to Ted Turner years ago.

Which in turn was absorbed by Warner Bros which in turn is now being sold off by AT&T.

[quote] The combined WarnerMedia-Discovery, ... has been structured to make a future buyout easier. Apple is one of a handful of companies that could afford to acquire it.

Yes I have said before that a WarnerMedia purchase would make the most sense for Apple short of buying Disney or Netflix.

Mister Mayer would have paid ME more!